Triptych

From Atlanta's wealthiest suburbs to its stark inner-city housing projects, a killer has crossed the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries, too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael's lover before she became his enemy.

Remarkable Mystery, Storytelling by a Master!

This is the first installment of the Will Trent series, but I started with books 7 & 8. It's just not necessary to read them in order. Still, Triptych..Show More » is a masterfully spun tale of murder, rape and betrayal.

The first part of the story revolves around the investigation of a series of brutal murders of prostitutes as seen from the perspective of veteran Atlanta PD detective Michael Ormewood. Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent is brought in as a profiler. Officer Angela Polaski is working undercover in vice.

But in Hitchcockian form, Slaughter slowly reveals the same investigation from an entirely different perspective. This is one of best mysteries I've read... Really all 3 books I've read have been page turners. Her story telling is as deeply personal as it is riveting. I was drawn in to each character's story, something I find rare even in good mysteries.

Michael Kramer does a good job with narration and his accents are accurate, if a bit drawn out. His baritone voice tends to grind on me a bit. Nevertheless he does a fine job with every character.

I am new to Karin Slaughter's work, but so far she's hit 3 home runs with Triptych, Criminal and Unseen!

Fractured

After years in a brutal marriage, Gailyn Campano knows how to accept violence and betrayal. But when she returns home to find an intruder holding her daughter hostage, a ferocious strength emerges within her battered soul - and before she knows it, a man lies dead on her floor.

Fascinating Mystery, Great Police Work

Another solid story from this wonderful author. Not a home run, but a double at least!

My grandmother was a house mother at an Orphanage in ..Show More »SC and my sister and I spent a week every summer there. For Will Trent, the stigma and experiences of growing up an orphan in various foster homes and a children's home both shape and haunt him. It's an extremely accurate work of fiction.

Equally fascinating is Trent's dyslexia, how it hinders and helps him as an investigator. Slaughter does a great job with this throughout the entire series.

The mystery here revolves around the murder of two young adults and the kidnapping of another girl. The police have to find her before she is killed. This is where Slaughter is masterful. She knows how procedure and the law work for criminals and against victims.

Phil Gigante does a good job on narration. At first his tone grated on me, but in the end I was completely engrossed in the story, a certain sign of great writing and great narration.

Undone

In her latest suspense masterpiece, Karin Slaughter weaves together moving, powerful human stories of characters as real as they are complex and unforgettable. At the same time she has crafted a work of dazzling storytelling and spine-tingling mystery - as three people, with their own wounds and their own secrets, are all that stand between a madman and his next crime.

SERIES IN WRONG ORDER!!!!!!

Love the books, great series.....but I was disappointed to listen to Broken before Undone. Read/listen to Undone first. Broken happens after the Undon..Show More »e novel. After reading Triptych and Fractured, I was excited to start Broken. Right from the beginning, I felt like I missed a book. I went back to the series list, just to make sure I downloaded the right book. Audible, please fix. Triptych, Fractured, Undone, Broken. Starting Criminal now.

Genesis

Someone had spent time with her – someone well-practised in the art of pain.... Three and a half years ago former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton moved to Atlanta hoping to leave her tragic past behind her. Now working as a doctor in Atlanta’s Grady Hospital, she is starting to piece her life together. But when a severely wounded young woman is brought in to the emergency room, she finds herself drawn back into a world of violence and terror.

Broken

When the body of a young woman is discovered deep beneath the icy waters of Lake Grant, a note left under a rock by the shore points to suicide. But within minutes, it becomes clear that this is no suicide. It’s a brutal, cold-blooded murder. All too soon, former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton – home for Thanksgiving after a long absence – finds herself unwittingly drawn into the case.

Faccinating till the end

Karin Slaughter keep me bound to my chair the whole time I really appreciate her style of writing. Hope to see some more of the other character on the..Show More »ir own. She is GOOD!.

Broken

When the body of a young woman is discovered deep beneath the icy waters of Lake Grant, a note left under a rock by the shore points to suicide. But within minutes, it becomes clear that this is no suicide. It's a brutal, cold-blooded murder. All too soon former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton - home for Thanksgiving after a long absence - finds herself unwittingly drawn into the case.

A book worthy of the series...

It's safe to say this is not my favorite in the Will Trent series, but by no means do I regret this purchase. Few writers have the skill to create cha..Show More »racters so engrossing you feel like they are family. Two other great authors who happen to be my favorites, James Lee Burke and Jo Nesbo, share Slaughter's remarkable gift of story telling. But I can't imagine knowing anyone like Dave Robicheaux, Clete Purcell or Harry Hole.

Will Trent and the whole cast of characters in this series are complex and intriguing. I just don't tire of listening. Continuing on my baseball analogy, Broken is another double.Criminal= home runUnseen= home runTriptych= home runUndone= doubleFallen= sacrifice fly

Fallen

There's no police training stronger than a cop's instinct. Faith Mitchell's mother isn't answering her phone. Her front door is open. There's a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother's house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn't see is her mother.

Gripping Story, Revelations of the Past

Several months ago I wrote a review of "Criminal," the 6th book in the Will Trent series, calling it the best of the series so far. It turns out that..Show More » I may have made a slight misstatement. You see, I had read "Criminal" out of order. I had not at that time listened to "Fallen." Now I have to amend my statement to say that "Criminal" is ONE of the best of the series. "Fallen" is the other best book of the series.

In "Fallen," Slaughter began the process of revealing the history of the generation of women who were the first female detectives on the Atlanta police force, a process which was continued in "Criminal." The plot centers on the kidnapping and torture of Faith Mitchell's mother, a retired high-ranking detective. As things develop, the reader, along with Faith, Will, and others, learn more about the history of Faith and her mother, and her mother's contemporaries in the Atlanta PD and the State Police. And this development of back story provides an excellent background for a reading of "Criminal," the next book of the series.

Like all of Karin Slaughter's Will Trent books, the story is taut, gripping, and sometimes gutwrenching. She makes you really care and worry about the characters. And she keeps many of the plot developments well hidden until they burst into sight. These books make for a tense, sometimes bloody, but enjoyable read.

Fallen: A Novel

On an ordinary spring day, Special Agent Faith Mitchell of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation returns home to a nightmare. Expecting to find her mother minding Faith’s new baby daughter Emma, she is horrified to discover Emma locked in the shed, her mother’s safe open, her gun missing and a trail of blood to the front door. Without waiting for back-up, Faith enters the house to a scene of carnage. It has been torn apart and a man lies dead in a pool of blood.

Not one of her best

I love Karin Slaughter's books and think it would be impossible for her to write badly, but this one didn't grab me. Maybe it is the focus on differe..Show More »nt characters than is the norm. Maybe it is the setting of gangs in Atlanta. Maybe it is the fact that some characters made me feel repulsed. Maybe it is the rather confusing plot. Maybe it is a mix of all of those plus the fact the narrator's delivery in a high pitched perky voice. I didn't hate this one but didn't love it either.

Snatched: Will Trent, Book 6

Will Trent, a dedicated agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for 15 years, knows that there’s definitely such a thing as a cop’s intuition - which is why he should have listened to his own. While in a restroom at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Will overhears a girl’s pleading, plaintive voice: "Please, I wanna go home." Something isn’t right here, thinks Will. He feels it in his gut. But he waits too long to act, and now the girl and the anxious, angry man she’s with have disappeared into the crowds at the busiest passenger airport in the world.

Short and sweet

Although Karin Slaughter's Trent series does not need to be read in order, it helps. This novella picks up right where the previous book left off, and..Show More » the next book picks up at the ending.

The only thing I didn't like about this book is that it was so short. I can't get enough of Will Trent and Grant County.

Criminal

The past will always find you. A woman is found brutally murdered in a sordid Atlanta apartment. Her blood-soaked body bears a startling similarity to a woman found dead almost 40 years earlier. Soon Special Agent Will Trent finds himself returning to the home he grew up in - and a past that could hold the clue to the killings.…

Criminal

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and he is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda's motivation, until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before - when Will's father was imprisoned for murder - this was his home....

Heart Pounding, Gripping Thriller

My heart is still thumping as I pull my mind back from the dark recesses where it has been dwelling the past 15 hours...this is the stuff from which n..Show More »ightmares are borne. Karin Slaughter is one of our best. With her crackling originality and vivid details, she once again creates characters and events that you think could be out your own newspaper - and pray they aren't.

Followers of Slaughter will recognize this as part of the Will Trent series, something I did not know; there was no mention of "series" in the publisher's summary. But this story easily stands on its own and should not be passed by if you are worried about sequence. I speak from experience: I noticed that I'd read 2 of the books years ago and had no idea they were a series. With that said, I'm sure there is information that would have been good to have, and I am tinged green with envy of the devout followers of the Will Trent books; I can only imagine the great satisfaction this long awaited tell-all will bring to them. (I'm even considering picking up the between rerads, here's the order: Triptych, Fractured, Undone, Broken, Fallen, & Criminal).

Detective Will is baffled when his hard-nosed boss Amanda restricts him from the case of a missing girl. To Amanda, there is something eerily familiar and threatening with this case, and when the brutalized bodies start to show up, she knows she is on a collision course with Will -- a collision full of dark secrets that has been 40 years in the making --and she isn't sure she wants to reveal the answers. "Sometimes it's criminal what a woman has to do..."

One of the great mechanisms Slaughter uses is starting this book with a quiet prelude of sorts, a reverent requiem. She introduces us to Lucy,we witness her -- the young daughter full of promise, the little sister, the insecurities and drug use to control her adolescent weight -- we watch her downward slide -- the predictable addiction, string of abusive boyfriends, and eventual plunge into prostitution. Slaughter creates a human being; Lucy is a person rather than just another wretched addicted prostitute. This approach creates an emotional bond to the victims, and explains deputy director Amanda's bulldog determination, and humanity.

The story is told in a series of flashbacks, back to the 70's when Amanda was a novice detective, fighting her first case, pitted against a squad of resentful sexist males that don't want the girls around. (Remember "male chauvanist pig"?) The resistance is abussive and hard edged.The men crassly refer to she and her partner as the "slits", and at one point, when the ladies call in for back-up on Cherry Street, the male dispatcher remarks, "What's that? You want to give me your cherry." This treatment, plus the horror she witnesses in her first case bely how tough Amanda will have to become.

One noticeable change in style is Slaughter's handling of the nauseous gore.(Something that kept me from picking up another Slaughter book after I'd read 2.) Instead of her ususal in your face detail, she presents the grossities more like a quick visual spanning of crime scene photos, allowing the listener to fill in the blanks. The change doesn't affect the jolt...the story is still tight and tense with layer upon layer of pulse-pounding apprehension. The edge-of-your-seat anxiety reminded me of The Silence of the Lambs, and the creepiest deviant ever created, Buffalo Bill. The monster in Criminal is reminiscent of Bill (and they share an affinity with needles and thread...). I would have liked to see Slaughter pry into this psycho's sick mind, and think she may have missed a chance for the psychological underpinning that could have made this ghoul memorable and kept this story forever in our minds. (But do we really want that haunting us?)

I couldn't put my earbuds down--the pace was exhilarating, the execution of the narration very very good. Though harsh, I don't recall a lot of foul language, but the intense scenes may have kept my mind from noticing particular words. The flashbacks help build some backstory and character development for those just jumping into this story, but you have to pay close attention or you can lose track of which era you're in. If like me, you've been craving a smart thriller, and you don't mind a few nightmares, this may be your book. Highly recommend to fans of hard- hitting criminal thrillers.

Unseen: Will Trent, Book 8

Bill Black is a scary guy: a tall ex-con who rides to work on a Harley, and trails an air of violence wherever he goes. In Macon, Georgia, Bill has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer and his cunning girlfriend. They think Bill might be a useful ally. They don’t know that Bill is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent named Will Trent. Or that he is fighting his own demons, undercover and cut off from the support of Sara Linton - the woman he loves, who he dares not tell he is putting himself at such risk.

Another Win!

Karin Slaughter's latest is another jaw dropping hit. The story contains complex characters and relationships that are poignant, entertaining and re..Show More »alistic. I highly recommend this book and series to anyone who enjoys crime/mystery novels where the good guys aren't one dimensional and the crimes could be from any headline. Great writing, pacing and plotting makes this a completely enjoyable listen. Ms. Early does a fine job narrating.